BROUGHT TO BOOK MARLON JAMES
MARLON JAMES
X marks the spot: how a Booker winner found his way to fantasy
Words by Jonathan Wright
WHEN MARLON JAMES CHOSE TO follow up his Booker-winning A Brief History Of Seven Killings with a fantasy trilogy, there was some surprise within parts of the literary establishment. But talk to the man himself and one of the reasons for this choice couldn’t come through more clearly.
“There are some very, very simple and basic reasons why fantasy,” he says, his accent Jamaican despite the fact he now lives in the USA. “I like magic. I like witches. I like goblins and demons, and I like fairies!”
There was another reason for choosing fantasy. “I became fascinated and consumed with African mythology, early religion and early history,” he explains. “The fantasy novels almost happened as an outgrowth of that.”